Getting a glimpse of the largest cat native to the Americas, the jaguar, roaming in its natural habitat has been a bucket list thing for me. And when it comes to making this a reality, there is no better place to see them than the Pantanal in Brazil. The Pantanal is a natural region encompassing the world’s largest wetland area and the world’s largest flooded grasslands.
For someone like me who resides in the UAE, Brazil is a quite a distance when it comes to travel, seventeen hours of flying to be precise! So, when I decided that I was going to do this trip I wanted to make the most of it. While jaguars were certainly top of the list, I also wanted to see and possibly photograph some of the other inhabitants that called the Pantanal home. These included a variety of birds like the Toco toucans, Hyacinth macaws, Blue and yellow macaws, Chestnut eared aracari’s, and a Red legged sereima. There was another very interesting mammal that I was hoping to get a glimpse of and that was the giant anteater! With this wish list and a lot of excitement I boarded my flight to Brazil.
I started my tour in the south of Pantanal which was mainly for birding and giant anteaters. I landed in Sao Paolo, took another flight to Campo Grande and then drove to our lodge in the south of Pantanal. While jaguars do inhabit this part too spotting them is a lot trickier and harder than in the north which is why our focus here was mainly on the rest of what I wanted to see. Fortunately for me I was in the best company when it came to spotting birds as I had two of the best birders and bird photographers with me for this trip, Magdalena Sanchez and Supreet Sahoo, who ensured that I wouldn’t miss seeing and even photographing most of the birds that resided here. One of the many scenes that I remember vividly was the trees in the backyard of my lodge getting full of toco toucans that came to feed o ! the fruits on them. In fact, it was not just them but also plush capped jay’s, red crested cardinals, monk parakeets, nanday parakeets and so many colorful birds that filled the space. Seeing these amazing birds at such proximity and with so many opportunities to photograph them is something I won’t forget for a long while.
The highlight of my stay in south Pantanal though had to be sighting the giant anteater and not just one of them, but six! Three of which were amazing from a photographer’s standpoint. To put things in perspective we spent almost half an hour walking less than hundred feet away from one individual who was completely relaxed with our presence and even decided to cross the road where I had a chance to lay down flat on the road and shoot low angle pictures of him.
Finally, it was time for the last and most important lap of the trip, my visit to north Pantanal home of jaguars. I knew I was in the right hands when I met our guide there Andre Moratelli. He is truly a treasure trove of information about the Pantanal, jaguars and pretty much anything to do with the flora and fauna of Brazil. Besides that, he’s also a very enthusiastic photographer too who loved his cats just as much as I did. After flying into Cuiaba and then taking a long road trip which included a dirt road part on the legendary Trans Panteneira and its over hundred and twenty wooded bridges, we arrived at our hotel which was right next to the jetty from where we had to board our boats daily in search of our cats. When you’re in north Pantanal the best way to see jaguars is by boat. These cats come by the sand banks there to hunt their favorite prey, the caiman. The landscape and sight of a jaguar walking on the sandbars is a sight to behold.
I couldn’t have asked for a better start to this leg of the trip as on our very first boat ride within fifteen minutes of being in the water we saw our first Jaguar a rather shy female who gave us a few minutes to take a few shots before she was gone. We couldn’t believe our luck when ten minutes later we saw our second jaguar, this one though was a lot more relaxed, she walked on a small sand bar, then into the bushes and was back on another sandbar again giving us ample opportunities to photograph her.
The second day was even better than the first, not only did we see our first jaguar early in the morning. She was an old female called Patricia and she wasn’t alone! She had two cubs with her who were probably four or five months old. They were behind the bushes where the mother had a kill from the night before and three of them were relaxing close by. While the tall grass didn’t give us much of a chance to see them or get clear shots, the curiosity of the cubs of that age meant patience would yield rich dividends. After spending an hour at that spot, we got our first few shots of the cubs as they moved down one by one to the kill which was stashed away in another bush. We got a nice look at their faces as they passed. After a few hours we decided it was time to move and scout the area for other Jaguars.
Twenty minutes later in the distance we saw what seemed to be a jaguar running on the sandbar. Our hearts raced at the prospect of seeing a jaguar taking down a caiman. It wasn’t to be though as she missed the caiman by a whisker. This female called Ague, she did make up for that disappointment by putting up a show for us, she sat for a while on the most picturesque sandbar, then walked across it, got into the water, swam across, got out shook her head, continued looking for caimans, walked further to a completely different area, walked towards us on a fallen tree while making full eye contact all through out, sat there with the most perfect light and then finally disappeared into the bushes. We had four hours with this cat!
After three days of seeing and photographing jaguars, caimans, and other water birds on the Pantanal, we thought we had done it all. What more could we possibly get? Then came a big male jaguar who almost got a capybara and one large female with two tiny little cute cubs.
Our final day began when we heard on the radio that a large male jaguar was spotted walking into the bushes. Since he already was in the bushes, we didn’t have much hope but even the slight chance of seeing a big male was worth going to that area and giving it a shot. Lady luck was definitely smiling at us all through this trip and this time was no different. Within moments of us getting to the area around where he was last seen he emerged from the bushes and walked right in our direction. He was hungry and was on the lookout for food. He got into the marshes and began to wade through them looking for caiman. His eyes caught sight of something else though, a capybara in the marsh. Despite their relatively smaller size catching a capybara is never easy even for a jaguar. Nevertheless, he made his way closer to a point where was less than fifty feet away. We thought that was it, but miraculously the capybara ducked into the water and just disappeared. The look of surprise and frustration was so obvious on the poor chap’s face. But as far as we were concerned our hearts were still racing with excitement.
The final show for our trip was put up by this large female jaguar who showed up with two of the cutest little cubs who were probably about two months old and just stayed at the edge of the water relaxing, nursing her cubs, and finally drinking water with one of them. This was a show that lasted for five whole hours.
Calling my trip to Pantanal a resounding success would be putting it mildly! To add to this given the unfortunate situation in Brazil due to COVID tourists were at an all-time low which mean almost all the sights we saw were exclusively for us and that is a photographer’s delight! One thing’s certain, even though I had such an amazing time, I am not yet done with the Pantanal or Brazil. I will be back and real soon!
